* 



84 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



strength gradually ebbed away until on January 27, 1851, when 

 surrounded by his family his eventful life came peacefully to an 

 end. 



It will be seen that Audubon's contribution to science is practi- 

 ^ cally embodied in the Birds of America and the Ornithological 

 *^Biography ; the Quadrupeds being only a joint production, with 

 Bachman as the chief scientific contributor. Futhermore, the two 

 works, the former all plates, the latter all text, represent the two 

 sides of the man or rather his two consuming interests. 



From the outset his main thought seems to have been the publi- 

 cation of his paintings, the characterization of the new species 

 being of secondary consideration. He tells us in his journal how 

 Bonaparte looking over his drawings picked out the species that 

 were new to science and penciled suitable names on them urging 

 Audubon to publish them at once in some journal so that he 

 should ensure credit for his discoveries, but the suggestion availed 

 nothing and he says in another connection, "I do not claim any 

 merit for these discoveries and should have liked as well that the 

 objects of them had been previously known as this would have 

 saved some unbelievers the trouble of searching for them in books 

 and the disappointment of finding them actually new. I assure 

 you that I should have less pleasure in presenting to the scientific 

 world a new bird the knowledge of whose habits I do not possess, 

 * than in describing the habits of one long since discovered." 

 "*k Therefore to his mind the first task was the publication of the 

 {A plates, the work of Audubon, the artist. These plates constitute 



^^as has been said the "jprpatqst tr^ute evernaid fr^-arLlQ sriftTjfii^" 



In their size they stand unique among natural history illustrations, 

 while their style is striking, original and quite different from any- 

 thing that had previously been produced, but in the desire for ac- 

 tion, the birds are sometimes placed in what are certainly unusual 

 if not as Dr. Coues has said, anatomically impossible attitudes. 



The biographies comprising the work of Audubon "the nat- 

 uralist," are on the same plan as those of Wilson, but Audubon 

 was a more fluent writer and seemed able to arouse the sympathy 

 of his reader with the experiences that he relates, while the more 



